The Early Warning System and the EU’s subsidiarity principle: the Basque Parliament’s application

This article analyses and evaluates the Basque Parliament’s participation in the EU’s Early Warning System (EWS) for checking the application of the subsidiarity principle in the EU’s legislative process. The Early Warning System is an instrument created by the Lisbon Treaty (signed in 2007 and in force since 2009) to safeguard the subsidiarity principle. One of its most interesting innovations is that it facilitates the participation of regional parliaments in the control of the subsidiarity principle. Two years after its introduction, the Basque Parliament is one of the most active regional actors in this regard.